An Interview With Maria Angelova
Do not have tunnel vision. Keep an open mind about what pivots your company can make at any time — you never quite know what will be a hit and what might be a miss, but if you don’t try, you’ll never know. I think we saw this a lot with companies during COVID. It was definitely what we did to pivot from a traditional taphouse bar & restaurant into making cookies by the thousands every week with Real Good Cookies.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Horak.
Sarah Horak is an owner of food & beverage hospitality concepts in Grand Forks, North Dakota. As a life long learner, she received her Bachelors Degree in Financial Management (‘08), Masters of Business Administration (’12) and Masters of Accountancy (’21) degrees from the University of North Dakota. She is a Veteran of the North Dakota Air National Guard and resides in Grand Forks with her husband and business partner, Nick, and their three kids.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path and point in your life?
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. It’s been a wild ride to get where I’m at today. To do that story justice, I’ll provide a little backstory. I grew up in western North Dakota and joined the North Dakota Air National Guard when I was 17. A week after high school graduation, I left for training and when I returned, I moved to Grand Forks to attend the University of North Dakota. In my third year there, I met my future husband, Nick, who was a bartender at the time. He was a hard worker and his role continued to expand until he became a manager. And then he started having me help out filling shifts as needed — bartending, serving, and beer tub sales — until I started managing another bar our boss owned. Over time, Nick became the General Manager of the three bars our boss owned and I started doing all of his bookkeeping. My undergrad was in financial management and I thought it would be good experience before I graduated. Nick and I got married and we planned to move to Denver, which is where his parents live. We met with our boss and turned in our notice. But instead of accepting our notice, it became a four year conversation about the possibility of us buying those three bars. So in 2012, when I was just 26, we became bar owners. Nick handled operations and I handled all of the finances and behind the scenes office work. And that worked really well for us for a long time. Until COVID. In the middle of March 2020, we laid off almost one hundred employees after mandatory closures for bar and restaurants. Not knowing what would be next and having three kids to support, we went into what I can only describe as, “do whatever it takes mode”. We took out huge loans to buy the businesses and even more to renovate them. Those loan payments and all of our overhead bills were still due and I was in the middle of graduate school for the second time, to top off the chaos. We knew we were going to have to get creative to keep things afloat. After a couple weeks, we were able to start opening and do “to-go” only service. Only one of our facilities has a full service kitchen, so we decided to focus all of our energy there and to do a super limited food menu with as many up-sell items as possible — growlers of beers and margaritas, cocktails to-go, merch, gift cards and my husband’s favorite cookie that I had been making for years — salted bittersweet chocolate chip. We had these on the menu at the bar since 2019, but they were never a huge seller — but an easy dessert for our kitchen to crank out. We brought back only a handful of staff to operate and I was in charge of taking the orders by phone. My history as a beer tub girl did me well in this situation as my main goal was upselling. “Would you like to add on a pack of cookies to your order?” Before long, people started calling and just ordering cookies! So I started making half pound cookies in addition to those salted bittersweet chocolate chip cookies (which we now call “The OG” or “The Original”) and sold out week after week after week. We kept making and selling the cookies through the bar and by the end of 2020, it became obvious that the cookies needed their own brand and their own kitchen. And that’s how Real Good Cookies was born. In 2021, we built out our own commercial kitchen and by the end of that year, had shipped our cookies to all 50 states. We’ve grown to a staff of eight that has made and sold over 120,000 cookies through online sales direct to customer, wholesale accounts and by partnering with local schools and organizations for fundraiser programs.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I think the pivot itself from selling beer to selling cookies is the most interesting part of this story so far! It’s the reason we initially got so much support from our community and that support is what has been able to propel us forward. The outpouring of success was just incredible and one of my biggest supporters was another business owner in town, Sandi Luck, who owns a handful of coffee shops in our region called Bully Brew Coffee. Her Grand Forks location had a commercial bakery kitchen that wasn’t in use, so she would let me use that kitchen as we were starting to grow and I was saving up to buy my own large equipment and move into our own kitchen. Her support was what allowed Real Good Cookies to grow so quickly in the beginning.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In the fall of 2020, a fundraising flyer had come home from school with one of our kids. A light bulb went off and I thought to myself, “why not offer to do a fundraiser with the school to increase sales and meet new customers AND give back to the community at the same time?!”. Seemed like a great idea to me and after talking with the PTO, they agreed. I set up my website for their orders and then boom — orders started coming in. And coming in. And coming in. And quickly, I was like, “What have I gotten myself into?!”. But I was so confident that I could figure it out, that I just kept the website live and let the orders roll in. By the time the sale ended, I had set myself up to make three times the amount of cookies I ever had in single week — but we had to do it in two days. It was absolutely the most ridiculous scene you had ever seen in a bar before. I had to call in all of the bartenders, servers, managers and my family to come help. It was a team effort and we got it done but that is how I realized I miscalculated how much I can do on my own and that I needed to hire more staff — and quickly!
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
After that first fundraiser, the phone started ringing from other schools, PTO parents and other organizations in our community asking if they could do a fundraiser. After the first few, we got a much better process down and were able to learn as we grew. We’ve continued to book fundraisers consistently to be able to give back to the community that supported us so much — they are the only reason Real Good Cookies exists in the first place! In the first two years of doing fundraisers, we’ve been able to donate over $50,000 in cash and almost $20,000 through in-kind donations to our community. Those donations have been able to go towards funding programs at schools, daycares, churches, sports groups, professional groups and more.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
This may sound incredibly cheesy or cliché, but I am most proud of the impact that Real Good Cookies has had on my two oldest kids (17 and 8 years old). Our oldest was my first cookie assistant and has seen and absorbed the amount of work that goes into running a company. Not just the day to day of it all, not just making and selling the cookies, but the community impact. To know that he understands the importance of giving back and being involved in the community, is something I’m so proud of. Our eight year old is going to the school that we held that first fundraiser at, so it’s been a very hands on experience to see the impact those funds are having at his school and the work the PTO is able to do because of the donations.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
As a community member, I think there are three things people can do to give back to any organization they support and that is through their time, their talents and their treasures. Volunteer your time to help with a project, use your professional talents to support them or if you’re able, make a donation. But really, just show up!
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think this might help people?
Yes! I am so excited to be working on a new nationwide marketing campaign while also doing our due diligence on our next potential move into a retail storefront with a larger kitchen and easier load in/out area. By continuing to grow and make Real Good Cookies week after week, we’re able to continuing giving back to our community.
What you are doing is not easy. What inspires you to keep moving forward?
At first it was out of desperation and a true feeling of “we have to do whatever it takes to keep things afloat”. But now, after so much organic growth, I really am inspired to just see where Real Good Cookies can go and how far we can take this company!
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
I’m going all the way back to the start of my entrepreneurial journey on this one:
- Hire an accountant who specializes in your industry to review your business financial plan. Just because you’ve done your own research and believe in your plan does not mean the market will support you. When we first got started, even though we had years of historical financial data to work off of and we did our research, what we didn’t fully understand was how our new debt service would fully impact cash flow and how much extra capital reserves we should have had — in an industry that has such cyclical highs and lows. We struggled financially for years until we could get that under control.
- Do not have tunnel vision. Keep an open mind about what pivots your company can make at any time — you never quite know what will be a hit and what might be a miss, but if you don’t try, you’ll never know. I think we saw this a lot with companies during COVID. It was definitely what we did to pivot from a traditional taphouse bar & restaurant into making cookies by the thousands every week with Real Good Cookies.
- Do not rely on your friends and family to support your business’s success. You cannot take it personally when your friends and family don’t stop into your business regularly or don’t buy your products regularly. In the beginning of our business journey, I thought our friends would all become regulars. I took it personally if I saw them post a picture on social media at a different restaurant in town. But what I realized is that very few people are loyal to just one restaurant — to just one brand — to just one store. We needed to reach out to the larger market to continue to grow and reach new customers on a regular basis.
- No one — and I mean no one — will care about your business as much as you do. If you work hard to hire and train and embrace a “run it like you own it” culture, loyal employees will ease your burden. You need to understand that it is your ongoing job to encourage and lead by example, to keep your company on a winding path for growth and success.
- No amount of business success is worth the loss of your marriage and family. It goes without saying that entrepreneurs work a lot of hours and in my experience, have to miss a lot of important events. They have stressful lives focused around financial and time demands. When spouses go into business together, there is double the financial pressure as you are now both reliant on the business’s success for your income. Nothing can quite prepare you for it. Over the last decade, Nick and I have had our share of these pressures, of work disagreements and full blown fundamental differences in how we wanted to operate our businesses. But at the end of the day, at the end of every day, we knew what was most important was that we were going home, together, with our kids. So we learned how to balance it and how to balance each other’s work demands.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could encourage a movement to bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, I would ask that people consider volunteering (even just one hour a month) at a charity that they care about. Every non-profit I have ever worked with struggle to meet volunteering needs. Think about how much more they could accomplish and how much more good they could do in their communities if they had more volunteers giving their time, talent and treasure to support their cause!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
When Nick and I were still considering moving before we bought our businesses, I had been conducting phone interviews for jobs, mostly in the financial industry in Denver. I was interviewing with this private trust bank and the woman who interviewed me said something that has stuck with me for over fifteen years. When talking about personal responsibility and the amount of work required for the job, she said they were looking for people who were willing to, “run it like you own it.” I took that seriously moving forward and now try to instill that level of support and confidence in my employees.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
For years, I have followed Marcus Lemonis and would absolutely love to grab a meal with him to be able to pick his mind about juggling multiple businesses, life, goals and growth. “Work-life balance” is a myth for business owners and I’d like to get his perspective on that.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow Real Good Cookies on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook @realgoodcookies or check out our website and shop online at www.realgoodcookies.com.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Sarah Horak Of Real Good Cookies Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.